Email Policy

I. Purpose

The primary purpose of the College’s email system is for correspondence relating to the mission of the College. Email is a resource provided to the College Community to enhance the performance and productivity of the College. The College Community recognizes that the hardware, software and network resources used by the email system as well as email correspondence are owned by the College.

II. Policy

Inappropriate Use of Email

• Sending unsolicited email messages or newsgroup posts, including the sending of “junk mail” or other advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material (email spam)
• Any form of harassment via email, telephone or paging, whether through language, frequency or size of messages
• Unauthorized use or forging of email header information
• Solicitation of email for any other email address other than that of the poster’s account, with the intent to harass or to collect replies
• Creating or forwarding “chain letters”, “Ponzi” or other “pyramid” schemes of any type.
• Use of unsolicited email originating from within the College’s networks of other Internet/Intranet/Extranet service providers on behalf of, or to advertise, any service hosted by The College of St. Scholastica or connected via the College’s network.
• Email communications are not considered private despite any such designation or functionality within the software application, either by the sender or the recipient. Access to the College’s email services is a privilege that may be wholly or partially restricted by the College without prior notice and consent of the email user when required by and consistent with the law when there is a substantiated reason to believe that violations of policy or law have occurred or, in time-sensitive cases when required to meet critical operational needs. The administrators of the College’s email system may, within certain limits, block mail including external, unsolicited, bulk email (spam) or viruses.

Privacy

• Do not say anything you would not want others, besides your correspondent, to read. Messages meant to be confidential can be intercepted during or after transmission, and even deleted messages might have been stored on backup tapes. Users are advised not to send confidential College communications via email. The College will make every attempt to assure the security of the email system, however, this is not a guarantee.
• The College does not monitor email communications as a matter of routine. However, Users understand and consent to any monitoring, interception, use or disclosure of email communications deemed necessary by the College in its discretion to investigate and enforce its Acceptable Use Policy, maintaining the integrity and efficient operation of The College’s systems or as may be required in connection with legal requests from governmental authorities.
• The College can assure neither privacy of an individual user’s use of the email resources nor the confidentiality of particular messages that may be created, transmitted, received or stored.
• Backup copies may be retained for periods of time even if the user has deleted the message from his account.
• IT members may, in the course of routine system maintenance, troubleshooting, upgrades, etc., inadvertently see the content of email messages.
• Email account holders are expected to comply with College requests for copies of email records in their possession that pertain to College business or whose disclosure is required to comply with applicable laws.
• Email account holders may, under certain conditions, have email files accessed by others when it relates to College business
• Do not send confidential information via emails such as social security numbers, account passwords, tax IDs or credit card numbers

Security of Email

• Never open an attachment or click on a web link from a person that you do not know. Many phishing scams involve an infected attachment or web link that looks to be from a legitimate bank or financial institution.
• Be aware of the potential for forged email. One example is that a person has acquired another individual’s password and that person pretends to be the other individual and sends a forged email.
• Be extremely careful when executing programs you receive via email, as they may contain viruses that could be dangerous to the network, servers or your computer

Harassment

• Users should be sensitive to the public nature of the shared computing facilities and take care to refrain from transmitting to others in any location inappropriate images, sounds or messages which might reasonably create an atmosphere of discomfort or be considered harassing

References

• CAN-SPAM Act
• FERPA
• HIPAA
• The College of St. Scholastica Acceptable Use Policy